Program

25 Apr 2014

Czech Pianist Tomáš Klement’s New Album Released in the UK

Czech pianist Tomáš Klement’s new album Contemplation of Life, featuring works by Klement Slavický, Maurice Ravel, and Ludwig van Beethoven, will be released by Eito Music on 25th April 2014 on Amazon and www.eitomusic.com. In conjunction with the album release, Tomáš Klement is also performing at the Pianists of the World Series at St. Martin-in-the-Fields, London at 1pm, 25th April 2014. Pre-order is available now via www.eitomusic.com.

Klement Slavický (1910-1999)
was a composer highly respected within the Czech Republic, but his music is often overlooked by the rest of the world. The last pupil of
Josef Suk, Slavický was in direct musical lineage that sprung from Antonín Dvořák and drew inspiration from Moravian folk music- the very
music that has influenced many significant Czech composers. This distinctively Czech sound, along with
Slavický’s own energetic and dramatic compositional style, can all be heard in
his only piano sonata- Contemplation of Life (Zamyšlení nad životem).

The young concert pianist Tomáš Klement became fascinated by Slavický’s
Contemplation of Life, identifying
personally with the “boldness and heaviness” of the sonata with an underlying
“nostalgia for the native Czech Republic”. Further reflection on how Slavický’s work can be best presented alongside
well-known classical composers led Klement to devise the programme for his
debut album to also include Maurice Ravel’s Sonatine
(1905) and Ludwig van Beethoven’s Sonata No. 23 in F minor, Op.
57 "Appasionata” (1804-1805).